Starship Mine (Star Trek: The Next Generation, S6 E18) was recommended by Royce Day (pronouced like Rolls Royce) he/him, who said: While this episode is safely in the "filler" category, lacking any connection to past episodes and never being mentioned again in the series, I'm fond of it because it's just FUN. It makes no bones (or McCoys) about being straight up "What if Die Hard, but on a Starship?" with Picard alone and rapidly losing his uniform tunic to crawl around in the Jefferies tubes and take on a bunch of terrorists/thieves by himself. Also unless I'm mistaken, this is the most running and punching he does in the series until the First Contact film.

Side Note: My second favorite "Die Hard on an X" story is the made for video film "Interceptor" which is set on a C5 Galaxy aircraft, and improbably stars Jurgon Prochnow as the requisite german terrorist out to steal a VR equipped F-117.

Starship Mine first aired on March 29, 1993, written by Morgan Gendel, and directed by Cliff Bole

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Unexpected (Star Trek: Enterprise, S1 E05) was recommended by Hoofburd, he/him, who said:

I would really like to hear from the writer/s if they knew that mpreg was an actual thing on certain password-protected tumblrs before they wrote this episode.

This one goes in the pot because I *didn’t* see it, at least not at first. I was watching on original broadcast, I was 10, and were only a few episodes in before one of the Cub Scout dads (very conservative bunch, my family/scout troop) mentions something hyperbolic about not letting his family watch the show anymore. I then didn’t see that episode myself and didn’t think anything of it, but then some eleven years later, I started watching the series start to finish, and found out that the reason why I didn’t remember this one was hilarious.

Unexpected first aired on October 17, 2001, written by Rick Berman & Brannon Braga, and directed by Mike Vejar

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Plato's Stepchildren (Star Trek: The Original Series, S3 E10) was recommended by Kaleb, he/him (pronounced 'Kay-lub'), who said: When thinking of which episode to recommend, this one didn't even cross my mind; I was sure it must be universally beloved! However, I found that it seems to be rather divisive, so I'm taking that as an excuse to recommend one of my all-time favorite episodes.

It has some really great Spock character moments- especially in the scene after he and Kirk are humiliated by Parmen and Philana- which I'm always excited about. Really the entire scene lives rent free in my mind, especially Alexander’s speech and his anger towards the other Platonians. As an autistic person, I really relate to how he- a disabled man living among a population created through eugenics- is finally able to verbalize that his treatment wasn't deserved because of his difference, and that he doesn't want to be just like them.

I also really love Uhura and Kirk's exchange right before their kiss, showing the trust shared between the members of the bridge crew this far into the series. The whole scene surrounding it has THE most sinister undertones, it's a little uncomfortable to watch, but it's supposed to keep you on tenterhooks waiting to see how far it’ll go before they find a way out.

Yes, it's another (allegedly) advanced alien species that's modeled itself on Ancient Greece- however it's camp as hell, so I love it, especially Spock, Chapel, and Parmen’s outfits. I have a blast every time I rewatch it, even though Parmen needs to learn that just because you're in space doesn't mean you don't have to ask for consent before making people do weird fucked up acts for your amusement.

TLDR: Have you ever heard of Plato, Aristotle, Socrates? Morons.

Plato's Stepchildren first aired on November 22, 1968, written by Joyce Muskat, and directed by John Erman

The Joy of Trek is hosted by Khaki & Kay, with editing & production by Chief Engineer Greg and music by Fox Amoore (Bandcamp | Bluesky)

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